Crypto-Backed Pac Spends $10 Mln to Influence California Senate Elections

A crypto industry-backed political action committee (PAC) has pooled funds to run an ad campaign to influence the California senate elections. According to a report by The Guardian, $10 million has been spent by a super PAC on advertisements opposing Katie Porter’s bid for the US Senate in California.

Katie Porter Faces Opposition from Crypto Supporters

The Guardian report highlights that Porter, a young progressive congressman, is facing significant challenges in her quest to advance to a November Senate runoff against Democratic front-runner Adam Schiff. To assist “leaders who champion the interests of progressive innovation and responsible regulation,” the Fairshake Pac declared at the beginning of the year that it had received $85 million from prominent members of the cryptocurrency community for the Pac and its affiliates.

Currently, one of the most well-known investments made by the Pac is in the California Senate race—home to Silicon Valley. As a congressman from southern California, Porter has gained notoriety for challenging influential CEOs and bringing up issues such as the amount of energy needed to produce cryptocurrencies and whether or not this energy use is exacerbating the climate catastrophe. Additionally, in 2022, Porter teamed up with Elizabeth Warren to begin an inquiry into whether Bitcoin mining in Texas was affecting the state’s electrical grid and the cost of power for average users.

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Crypto Voters Hold Significant Power in Upcoming US Elections

Voters that use cryptocurrency will be very important in the upcoming 2024 US election. One in five Americans now own digital assets, according to Forbes. 52 million persons, to be exact. This number is enough to change the course of the upcoming presidential race in America. Also, the demographic’s political makeup is arguably the most notable. Forbes also noted that 22% of respondents who own cryptocurrency identified as Democrats, 18% as Republicans, and 22% as Independents, based on survey data from Coinbase and Morning Consult. The interests of US voters have changed, as CoinGape has previously observed. Moreover, seventy-three percent of respondents to a Harris Poll poll believe that aspiring US presidents ought to be familiar with cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency. In such a case, the US government-formation race will probably need to take the digital asset community into account.